Neoliberalism and the demise of public education: the corporatization of schools of education

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Abstract

Neoliberalism has brought fundamental changes to the way schools of education prepare professional educators; among them is the pressure for schools of education to produce fast-track teacher preparation programs that bypass traditional requirements. Due to the privatization of public education, a new market has emerged to train educators and administrators for charter schools. The No Child Left Behind Act has made the old multipurpose PhD in education obsolete and has led to fast-track EdDs to train school administrators to raise test scores. In this era of corporate schooling, colleges of education are competing with online and for-profit colleges to increase student enrollment. Academic capitalism has entered into the classroom and it has redefined the academic premises upon which the entire higher education system was instituted. This article asks, what are the implications of this new educational arrangement for the purpose of education and the development of a critically informed mass of democratic citizens? This article proposes a critical dialog among educators, parents, labor groups, and grassroots organizations and an action plan to stop the dismantling of public education.
Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)487-507
JournalInternational Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education
Volume25
Issue number4
StatePublished - May 8 2012

Keywords

  • globalization
  • neoliberalism
  • public education
  • schools of education
  • critical policy analysis

Disciplines

  • Education

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